


Maze of Life

by Archerthewarlock



Category: Watch Dogs (Video Games)
Genre: M/M, Watch dogs 2 with a persona twist, velvet room
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-08 23:55:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19878184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archerthewarlock/pseuds/Archerthewarlock
Summary: The tolling of an unknown bell sets off a chain of events that turn the city of San Francisco on it's head as a knew form of viruses start infecting Blumes old net work. Marcus and the rest of Dedsec will have their hands full with this new mystery. will they be able to find and stop the source of these 'Shadow Viruses' before any more lives are ruined?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this is an idea that's been haunting me for a while. and I felt like if I didn't get anything posted I would delete it for the hundredth time and still be stuck on Chapter one. so here we go.
> 
> also I haven't really proof read this one. apology in advance for any spelling/grammar mistakes.

Marcus slammed his hands over his ears, trying to block out the intense ringing. It was like someone was going crazy with a large Bell right next to him; and judging by the looks of everyone else, he wasn’t the only one suffering.

All around him people had stopped what they were doing to cover their ears. A few even tried to glance around to try and identify the source. 

The Bell rang twelve times before it finally stopped; but Marcus kept his ears covered for a few more minutes before daring to uncover them. The sound had been so intense that it still felt like his skull was shaking even after it halted.

“Hey Marcus…” he flinched a little at the sound of Sitara’s voice coming over the Dedsec channel. “Did you hear that weird ringing?”

“Yeah” he answered, standing up and glancing around as everyone started to resume their activities, although with a bit of hesitation. “I’m guessing you guys heard it too?”

“Fuck, my ears are still ringing.” Wrench spoke up over the channel, pretty much answering the question himself. 

“Reports are coming in from all over the city.” Josh added in his matter-a-fact way. “Seems like everyone heard it.”

“Any idea where it came from?” The Hipster asked, wondering if maybe the others could pinpoint the location.

“According to these readings...there was no sound.”

“How is that possible Josh?” Sitara got to the question before Marcus could even get the words out. “Everyone heard it, how could it not exist?”

“A glitch in the system?” was the only answer Josh would think of. “Our system did glitch out and go down during the ringing.”

“Yeah, even my mask went down.” Wrench backed his fellow engineer up on this. “Maybe the same went for the rest of the city.”

“Could be some kind of mass attack.” T-bone was now entering the channel with his two-cents. “Distract everybody with a loud ringing then reboot all the tech in the city.”

“But why the whole city?” Something about this just didn’t add up for Marcus. 

“Make it harder to pinpoint who was attacked?” Sitara tried to offer up an answer but even she seemed unsure about it. 

“Marcus, check out some of the ctOS boxes around the city. See if there’s anything weird going on.” Ray instructed and soon Marcus’s phone buzzed, NudleMaps lighting up with five locations. 

“Alright.” The Hipster checked his phone and marked the nearest location. “Gotta say, I don’t normally go checking these boxes for problems.” He grinning, guess there’s a first time for everything.

“We’ll send your bill to Blume.” Wrench managed to get the last word in before channel cut off.

“Just wait until they see all those Zeros.” The hipster chuckled before heading out.

\-----

“I can’t believe I found nothing.” Marcus sighed as he tossed his shirt to the floor.

“Maybe there was just nothing to fine?” Wrench sat on his bed in nothing more than a part of sleep pants, his mask sitting on the nightstand. “Maybe it was a freak thing, you know?”

To this Marcus just gave the Anarchist a look. “A loud ringing shakes the town and the city has a small black out. Yeah just a freak thing.” he sat down on the side of the side of the bed. “I just...feel like there’s something else happening.”

Wrench wrapped his arms around the hipster’s shoulders, burying his face in the other’s neck. “If there’s something there, we'll find it.”

“It’s like it’s right in front of my face.” he sighed as he reached up and started running his hands through the other’s hair. “And I just can’t see it.”

“Want me to put-”

Marcus didn’t even let the engineer finish before he leaned back forcing them both to fall back onto the bed. “Common man.”

“We’ll figure it out man, how many times do I have to tell you? We’re Dedsec. We beat Nemec, we can beat this.” Wrench flipped the hipster off of him so he could see look the other in the eye. “Now are you going to keep going in circles with this or are you going to let me dirty talk in the bedroom.”

This managed to put a smile on the Hipster’s face as he started at this boyfriend. “Guess your right.” he let out a mock sigh as he looked up at the ceiling and pulled the other male to his side. “I hate it when your right. You get this look on your face.” he looked over at Wrench. “Yeah, that look.”

It was enough to earn him a playful punch to the arm. “You love it.” Wrench leaned him and kissed him.

A scream ripped through the air, forcing the two apart too early for either of their liking's.

The two of them sat up and glanced towards the window. “Dracula better be shocking around the city fucking nude for someone to be screaming this time of night.” Wrench cursed as Marcus got up to look out the window to see what was happening.

Marcus looked out the window for a moment before opening it wide and leaning of it. The outside world was obscured by a thick cloud of fog, making it impossible to see more than an inch in front of his face. From far off in the distance he could hear screams of different people coming from the fog.

“What’s all of the screaming about?” Wrench finally got up from the bed and came to stand behind him. “Damn, that fog is thick enough to cut with a knife.”

“Yeah” The hipster nodded as he pulled back from the window, shivering slightly at the cold dampness that came with the fog. He had a horrible sense of unease as he leaned into Wrench. “Can’t even see pass the window.”

The engineer nodded and reached over towards the window, pushed it closed. “Guess with fog that thick it’s easy for reckless drivers to almost run someone over.” he rubbed Marcus’s arms, noting how cold he was, trying to warm the other man up. “Just gonna sleep with that closed for now. It’s colder than a witch’s tit out there, weird for Cisco even for this time of year.” he started to pull the Hipster to the bed. 

“You planning on warming me up?” Marcus smiled as he let himself be led to the bed.

“I can think of a few ways.” Wrench grinned pushing him to the bed and climbing in with him.

\------

“The bell has tolled.”

“Your sure they're the ones?” The young man asked as he stared at the blue tinted computer screen.

“Yes.” came the reply from the Bizarre looking man that sat at the desk. “You’ll be doing this alone you know.” the man turned towards him. “Are you sure you can handle this? You’ll be working outside this room.” he tilted his head. “If you like I could ask Theodore to give you a hand.”

“No, I got this.” the young man stood back. “I just have to get to them before the shadows do.”

“Well then good luck, Reginald.” The Bizarre looking man turned back towards the computer screen. “Until we meet again.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marcus has a strange dream about a room decorated in blue velvet, while three people have been arrested claiming that someone took over their cars. But Josh found something of interest that may Connect them to black out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for the Kudos guys, wasn't really expecting anything so it means a lot. once more sorry for any spelling or grammar errors. we died like warriors here.

_ Computer monitors hung on the far wall, the screens all tinted a light blue colour. On the left and right walls there hung royal blue curtains that looked to have been made of soft velvet that obscured the surface behind them, and the floor was a mix of light and dark blue tiles. An overhead light illuminated the room in a white light allowing him to see the desks and powered down computers that littered the room. _

_ In the center of the room was a long table with six chairs sat around it with room for a seventh. At the head of the table sat a young man with blonde hair cut into a mid-fade, wearing a royal blue hoodie that was adorned with a bright yellow circle graphic at its center and black pants.  _

_ The young man looked up at him with a pair of piercing yellow eyes “Welcome to the Velvet room.”  _

_ at this the blonde sat up a little more straight allowing him to get a better look at his face. His skin was pale to the point it looked almost unhealthy but really what stood out was the large burn mark that took up half of his face, and on his neck as the tattoo of a large V. _

_ He almost looked like someone he knew very well, if not younger.- _

\-----

“So you had this weird dream about me in a blue hoodie standing in a place called the Velvet room?” Wrench glanced at him with a pair of question marks flashing on the screen of his mask. “You got a velvet Kink I don’t know about?”

Marcus could only shake his head at this, leave it to Wrench to take it there. He had just finished telling the other man about the strange dream he had had that night as they walked to the hackspace. “I don’t think it was that kind of dream, man.” he gave him a side-long glance with a slight smirk before continuing. “But like, everything was blue, the computer monitors, the floor, the curtains, everything.”

“So like that song from the 90’s that was super poplar?” 

“Yeah! Like the main Hackspace was an Eiffel 65 song.” The hipster nodded, god he could already hear the lyrics starting to play in the back of his head. “Expect you and your eyes, your eyes were this bright spooky yellow.” that was a detail he couldn’t forget, like the one place that was supposed to be blue wasn’t. 

“One, I can’t believe you remember who sang that song without looking it up. And Two-” Wrench held up two fingers. “I will never wear yellow Halloween contacts, can’t get them into my eyes. Sorry if that ruins your fantasy, dude, but that’s just how it is.”

“Aw, and I was really coming around to the idea of you with yellow eyes, all splayed out for me on a bed with blue velvet sheets.” Marcus could help but tease a little bit.

“Wait, wait, wait you never said anything about a bed with velvet sheets.” a pair of annoy slants now adorned the mask as the Engineer put his hands on his hips.

“Cause there wasn’t any.”

“Marcus. Don’t go playing with my fragile heart like that.” Wrench tried to look and sound angry but his own playful tone gave it away not long before a winky face replaced the slants. 

“I’m just wondering if maybe it means something, you know.” Marcus normally wasn’t one to believe in such things as prophetic dreams but he did think that there might have been more to this than just a dream.

“It means...I need to buy a shit ton of blue velvet and a blue hoodie.”

“No, I mean like, maybe my subconscious is trying to tell me something.” he looked at Wrench with a pleading look. “Look, I don’t know. Maybe I saw something from the ctOS boxes that was important but over looked it cause it was called something dumb like ‘Velvet Room’ and my brain is trying to tell me this. I don’t know.”

Wrench stopped and looked his boyfriend over, glad that he had his mask to shield him from the Puppy dog eyes that were being thrown his way. To look directly at them could be lethal. “Okay.” he put his hands up in defeat. “you and I will run through all the data you collected yesterday once more. Look for anything labeled ‘Velvet Room’ or some shit, then get Josh to double check. Sound good?”

“Yes.” Finally Marcus relaxed a little; glad that the other was willing to do a search through the data once more to ease his nerves. “Thank you.”

Wrench pulled the door to the Game Shop open and motioned for Marcus to go in ahead of him. “Still saying ‘The Velvet Room’ sounds like a sex dungeon.” while this managed to get a laugh out of Marcus it got a few odd glances from some newer customers. “Or at lease a very fancy club.”

The Game shop was quiet save for the ambient fantasy music that was in a constant loop. A few of the regulars browsed the shelves, most of them not even looking up as Marcus and Wrench walked in. A good portion of them not even noticing the two heading into the back.

The Hackspace below was normally a different story, but as the door opened it was as silent as a crypt. 

Glancing at each other at the lack of music playing, the two hackers made their way into the depths. 

“Yo! Sitara? Josh? Ray? Anyone home?” Marcus called out as hit the last stair, glancing around for any of the other members.

“Marcus! Wrench!” Sitara called back and the two looked over to Josh’s station where the other three were standing. “You two better come see this.” the look on the artist face alone was enough to tell them it wasn’t good, and quickly headed over. “Play the video.”

**“No! It Wasn’t Me! It Was Her!” in the video was a woman being dragged away from her car by the police, frantically screaming and thrashing her body about. “She’s Not Me! Maker Stop! MAKE SHE STOP!” Tears were streaming down her face, running mascara across her cheeks as she looked back at her vehicle “YOUR NOT ME! YOU KILLED THOSE PEOPLE!” she screamed at the car.**

**“This was the scene shortly after police arrested Nola Ryans for the deaths of three people last night in multiple hit and runs during the intense fog that rolled in last night.” The journalist was not speaking over the scene. “The Woman claims that someone else pretending to be her, took over the car while she was driving. Police have been reviewing dash-cam footage to see what could have possibly happened.”**

**The scene blinked away allowing all watching to see the reporter, three images behind her showing three different people being taken away.**

**“What has interested investigators more is that there have been three other incidence like this. All of them claiming someone else took control of the car.**

**“Mass-hysteria, or simply a new form of the-devil-made-me do it. We will keep you posted when new information is available.”**

Josh quickly tapped the play button and the video that was up on the screen started to play.

“Any of these people know each other?” Marcus asked as the video stopped.

“No. one of them is a student at Stanford, another is a lawyer, and Ryans is an elementary school teacher in Oakland.” Josh stated bring up another page. “It’s not impossible but it would be extremely unlikely.”

“So either this is the newest craze sweeping the nation or-” Wrench Started looking around at the others.

“Or something’s up.” Ray finished. “Show ‘em what you found, kid.”

“I managed to hack into the police database and take a look at some of the evidence they’ve collected, and I noticed something...Odd.” he brought up a page regarding Nola’s car and it’s inner computer system “I notice that all the logs from the different cars have something...off about them.” he scrolled through the page and then moved his mouse to hover over a collection of ones and zeros. “Here...this shouldn’t be here. It looks like a small glitch in the system. Then…” he scrolled down a bit more. “Then here something seems to activate.” 

“So like our car hack?” Marcus had to ask; he’d used that hack himself a few times but never did it have this effect. Not enough to cause three hit and runs.

“No.” to this Josh shook his head. “This is closer to some type to Malware or Ransom wear. Locking the owner out of the system and letting the person on the other end control the car.”

“Any chance you can trance it?” Sitara looked over the data trying to find the answer herself. 

“No. it seems like it originates from inside the car itself. Possibly masking itself.”

At this Marcus sighed as he racked his brain for any kind of clue. “And all the other cars have the same thing?”

“Yes.” the Programmer nodded bringing up all the other pages he collected. “But the opening glitch happens at different times during the day. The only thing that’s the same about them is they all happened after the black-out yesterday.”

“So you're thinking it’s connected to that?” Marcus stood up a little straighter looking at all the others.

“It’s hard to say for sure. But there is a rather high chance that’s the case.” Josh answered looked back at everyone else. “It’s not much right now, we don’t really know who or what could have caused it.”

“It’s more than had before.” The Hipster nodded taking one more look at the data in front of him. This didn’t seem to be the work of Prime_Eight, there was no money in it as far as he could see.

Though the drivers of the cars seemed to be claiming that someone was speaking to them the whole time, maybe demanding money?

“Oh before we forget!” Wrench’s modulated voice cut through his thoughts. “Marcus thinks he saw something in the data from the ctOS boxes yesterday that might be important. See if you can find anything named ‘The Velvet Room’.”

Marcus had almost forgotten all about his little dream until now; and now that Wrench brought it up he felt a little silly even worrying about ot. “It’s probably not as big as I thought it was.I don’t even know if I even-”

“Found it” The hipster was silenced by Josh’s words as the programmer's fingers moved lightning fast across the keyboard. “Huh, it’s a fortune telling booth in West-field Mall.”

“A fortune telling Booth?” Now Sitara was giving him that ‘Really’ look. “What makes you think that something they have anything to do with what’s been going on?”

“And here I was hoping it would be as kinky as it sounds.” There was a slight pout in Wrench’s voice.

“According to this it opened up the moment the bell sound was heard.” Josh cut in catching everyone’s attention. “It’s owned by someone named Philemon, managed by someone named Igor, and the only worker there is named Reginald.” Josh paused for a moment as he noticed something. “None of these people have last names.”

“I’m more interested in that fact that they managed to open shop just as all of this started going down.” Ray crossed his arms over his chest, clearly suspicious of the how thing. “I refuse to believe they don’t have some part in all this.”

“We don’t really have any proof besides they the fact that they opened shop at a strange time.” Sitara countered the old man. 

“Couldn’t hurt to go in and poke around.” Marcus grinned. “Common guys lets go take a peek into Dedsec’s future.”

“Ooo~ I wonder if they can tell me about your love life?” Wrench chirped, wrapping his arm about his boyfriend. “Just to see if there’s anyone out there who’s car I might need a bit of fire added to it.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A trip to the mall leads the members a Dedsec find the place known as the Velvet Room, will give them any insight into this growing mystery or will the answers they get only cause the mystery to grow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to kind of reference the other Velvet rooms in different persona games.And while I don't normal do sound tracks for stories, I feel there should be one for this one. I will put a prompt if you wanted playing during the Velvet Room  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zz1r1WCHvw
> 
> also I finished this yesterday but I wanted to get some pictures done for this,  
> 

While it was a bit more normal for members of Dedsec to run different ops at the same time, for this one the inner circle of Dedsec had come out for it. Mostly to get out the basement and into some fresh air.

The mall, while normally a somewhat busy place, seemed to have an influx of Teenage girls, university students and Hipsters all wandering around talking to each other about something that seemed to have caught their interest.

“Is one of those fancy Boutiques having a huge sale or something?” Sitara glanced around the area, she wasn’t seeing any sale signs and almost no one seemed to have bags. She did notice a line up that was on the second floor of the Mall, though all she could make out of the shop was the Blue and Gold Butterfly on the sign.

“Well if they are, pick us up somethin pretty.” Ray nodded towards Josh. “Josh and I are gonna go to the food court and get use all some lunch.” He turned around and started walking off, Josh who was eager to get away from the crowds was quick to follow. “If you find anything, give Us a shout over the channel.”

The three watched them go before turning to each other. 

“So should we split up?” Marcus glanced over at Sitara, wondering if she wanted to go off on her own; he was fine if it was just him and Wrench.

“Nah.”Sitara just shook her head. “This place is big but I don’t think it’ll take that long to find this place.”

“Yeah, it’s not like there are maps all over the place.” Wrench just cast a sidelong glance at one of the directories as he said this, it was only a few feet away from them.

“But that takes all the fun out of it.” The hipster hooked his arm around punk’s shoulders and guided him away from directory with a grin. “Besides, doesn’t hurt to window shop.”

If there was anything Sitara and Wrench about Marcus it was that it ‘does hurt a little to window shop’. The hipster was a bit of an impulse buyer, a lesson that Wrench had learned when he started the man and Sitara was just now being taught. Not that she minded too much.

He dragged them into just about every clothing shop on the first floor, and while it didn’t eat too much into their wallets it did cause the search to be a bit more drawn out then it needed to be. Of course the hipster wasn’t just buying for himself either, picking up anything he thought would look good on his man without forcing the other to try it on. and he wasn’t the only picking up a few things, Sitara was also grabbing a few odds and ends that caught her eye.

By the time they finished scooping out the first floor there were probably a few Mall patrons with wallets lighter then they were when they came in.

“Well, we covered the whole first floor and still no Velvet Room.” Marcus sat down on the bench to relax a bit before they moved upstairs, Sitara sitting down next to him.

“I can’t believe you two bought all that stuff.” Wrench had remained standing, amusement apparent in his tone.

Marcus looked at the single bag in Wrench’s hand containing and phone case and a spiked bracelet, then looked down at all the bags he had with him. “Good portion of these are for you, you own like three shirts and one pair of jeans and a set of pj pants. Someone has to buy you clothes.” he looked up at the other, a little miffed but only a little. Wrench wasn’t a big shopper.

“Oh common, it’s cute!” Sitara had picked up a few hundred different pieces of jewelry. “Was thinking of smashing them down and mixing them into some of my paints.” She smiled up at the engineer holding the bag. “If your good you can help.” she knew she had a yes when she saw a pair of !! flash on the man’s mask. 

“Don’t you be flirt with my man.” Marcus playfully jumped in here.

“Marcus, I’d never do that to you.” the artist gently placed a hand on his arm and looked him in the eye with a serious expression that quickly broke into a smile. “Not for all that anyway.” she pointed at Wrench. “You can have all that Mess.”

“Standing right here,”

At this Marcus got up and stood by the Anarchist, wrapping his arms around him. “Good.” once he got his laugh looked back up to the second floor. “Anyway-” he cleared throat. “We should check on the second floor.”

Sitara and Marcus quickly gathered up their bags before taking the escalator up a floor.

The second Floor was a different layout then the first floor, focusing a bit more on smaller but more expensive Boutiques that show cased Bags, eye-wear, and women’s underwear with one of the more popular big box store towards the back.

Not too far away from the escalator the three could see the lineup from before, the sign now clearly view able from this angle. The sign looked to have been hand painted, the words a rich yellow painted on a royal blue background with what looks to be a Blue and Gold Butterfly hanging just above it. 

Velvet Room it read. Unlike the places around it, which had open doorways for people to walk through, this place had deep blue curtain one had to part in order to walk inside. a security 

guard stood outside the door, making sure only a few people got in at a time causing a line up to form.

“Looks like we found it.” Sitara stated as she looked over at the line up, most of the people there were hipsters, university students and teenage girls.

“Yeah and a bunch of superstitious weirdos.” Wrench too was watching the line up. “Lot less Emo and goth types then thought would be here.”

Marcus just nodded as the worry that plagued him this morning hit him. Quickly he turned on the Dedsec channel and contacted Ray and Josh. “Yo guys, we found it. It’s on the second floor right across from the first escalator.”

“On our way.” Ray answered. “Hope you guys like fries.”

As the waited for Ray and Josh, the three found a spot not to far from the room so they could watch as people went in and came out. Most of them that were led inside seemed nervous or overly giggly, a few seemed to be a bit skeptical. Yet when they left most seemed to be amazed by something they saw behind the curtains. 

“So that’s the place?” Ray spoke up as he approached the three, carrying tray of fries with Josh behind him. The old man looked the room and the line over. “Lot of people for a bit of fortune telling.”

“Why would people buy into something like that?” Josh only gave the room a passing glance as he handed out the fries. “Cards and crystal balls can tell the future just as much as buying into New Dawn provides enlightenment. It’s just stupid.”

“Some people see it as therapeutic” Marcus shrugged. “Sometimes you just feel like your worried about nothing and seeing a fortune teller can kind of help point you in the right direction.” he smiled as he looked over at Josh who didn’t seem to be buying any of this. “Besides it’s cheaper than a therapist and doesn’t come with the contract of New Dawn.”

With no other arguments the group headed over to the line up which had shortened a bit over time. Now closer to the door they could hear what sounded like quiet piano music coming from the room.

“Who ever did their decorating did a great job”

“I totally got that Twin peaks vib from it.”

“It looked like a nightclub without all the people. How do you get a disco ball that big?”

“Wow, it looked like a really big fancy elevator.”

“How’d they make it look like a limo? That was so cool.”

“The walls must have had Screens in them, it those giant gears looked so real.”

“It was like a movie theater.”

Almost everyone who exited the room was talking excitedly about how it looked, all of them claiming to have seen vastly different rooms from each other. 

Only one person came out and simply left without saying anything, clutching a trinket in their hand as they hurried away from the line.

Now it was their turn to enter.

“Whoa, hold it.” The guard at the door stepped in front of them, blocking their access. 

“We’re a group.” Marcus nodded towards the others behind him.

“Only two at a time.” the guard grunted not getting out of their way. “I can’t let-”

“It’s fine.” a voice from the other side of the curtain spoke up. “Let them all in.”

The guard looked back at the curtain then back at the group of hackers, letting out a sigh they stepped aside. 

\--------------------

See link in the author’s notes soundtrack music if you wish to listen. Please listen with headphones.

\----------------------

[Velvet Room](https://phantomxdedsec.tumblr.com/post/186508553822/hack-space-velvet-room-from-here)

The Dedsec group ducked pass the curtain and could now hear the music more clearly. 

The room looked nothing like the descriptions they had heard outside the room. It looked big on the inside then it did on the outside; which gave a few members of the group some Doctor Who vibes.Computer monitors hung on the far wall, the screens all tinted a light blue colour. On the left and right walls there hung royal blue curtains that looked to have been made of soft velvet that obscured the surface behind them, and the floor was a mix of light and dark blue tiles. An overhead light illuminated the room in a white light allowing him to see the desks and powered down computers that littered the room. 

A desk sitting in the middle of the room with a deep blue velvet cloth draped over it.

“Welcome to the Velvet Room.” their attention was drawn to a young man standing next to the desk, he had blonde hair cut into a mid-fade, wearing a royal blue hoodie that was adorned with a bright yellow circle graphic at its center and black pants. His skin was pale to the point it looked almost unhealthy but really what stood out was the large burn mark that took up half of his face, and on his neck as the tattoo of a large V. His eyes were an intense Yellow colour which drew attention away from the large burn that covered most of his face.

He looked exactly the person from Marcus’s dream, expect...he was about as tall as one those Haum robots. He did look a lot like Wrench but the differences were a bit more clearer now.

“Does your mom know your working as a Fortune Teller?” Sitara was the first one to speak the moment she finished looking the young man up and down, this got a laugh out of Ray.

“Don’t take this the wrong way kid, but I was expecting someone a little...older.” The old hacker tried to hold back another chuckle.

“Oh, I see we have some insolence guests.” The young man seemed to be taking the comments about his height and possible age in strides. Though from the sound of his voice he was as young as Sitara suggested“Anyway...I am Reginald, and I am delighted to make your acquaintance...” he gave a shallow bow.

“He’s a Reggie” Sitara whispered.

Reggie took a seat at the desk and picked up a deck of cards, that Marcus could have sworn wasn’t there before, and started to shuffle them. “Shall we take a look at your future?”

“Actually we came to ask about…” 

“The strange things going on” Reginald finished Marcus’s sentence for him, laying out a line of cards. “Things are getting worse, not even technology is immune.”

“What do you know about those hit and runs?” This time Ray came forward.

“Not a whole lot other then I was here.” Reg flipped over one card labeled the judgement that was upside down. “I do know that after the bell tolling the University student had found out she failed two of her exams, and the Lawyer had just found out his wife won custody of his only son, and Miss Ryans had just found out she was being blackmailed by the principle.”

“And how do you know any of this? You just said you were here.” Marcus stepped forward crossing his arms. 

“I was, but I hear things. And Josh isn’t the only one who can hack into the police database.” Reginald flipped another card, this one labeled The Devil and it was forward facing.

“How do you know my name?” Josh felt a bit panicked that this person seemed to know his name.

“Everyone has inner demons” the young man continued. “And they can attack when we are at our lowest, but if you don’t accept them they can take a life of their own.” 

he flipped another card, this one was the Moon. “You’ve taken on a mystery, one that will force you to look at things differently then what your use too.” Reg flipped the final card which was a revered Justice. “And if you don’t, a great injustice will befall us all.”

“Wha-” Marcus was taken aback by all this, this felt like it was a bit more then some fortune.

“Okay” Sitara pushed passed the hipster and walked up to desk herself. “Listen kid, you clearly know more than your telling us-”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

The artist didn’t get chance to finish as a scream rang throughout the Mall. She turned towards the door then back at the kid. “This isn’t over.” Sitara and the other quickly headed for the exit to see that was happening.

Marcus started to follow them but someone grabbed his sleeve, looking down he saw it was Reg looking up at him. “You’ll need these.” the boy held out a pair of glasses to him and he was released the moment he took them.

He gave Reg a quick look before he quickly followed the others out into the main area, only for everything to be enveloped into fog.


End file.
